ISLAMABAD, March 13: In a late-night meeting held at the presidency and presided over by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistan People’s Party reiterated its offer to ‘political forces’ to negotiate with the government on implementing provisions of the Charter of Democracy and restoring normalcy.

“The meeting expressed the hope that the offer will be responded to positively by the political forces in the country,” the president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

In a press release, the spokesman said the meeting had decided to continue efforts to defuse the political tension through dialogue, reconciliation and respect for the Constitution and in accordance with democratic principles and commitments made in the charter.

It resolved that the government would protect the lives and property of citizens and maintain law and order at all costs, but not to do anything that was unconstitutional or that abridged basic rights.

The PPP central executive committee has been convened on March 16 to thrash out a response to the evolving political situation.

Political uncertainty loomed large on the horizon in the federal capital as after day-long efforts by senior party members, back-channel diplomacy by well-wishers, and not so veiled efforts by the top military commander, to broker a deal failed to produce any breakthrough to defuse the crisis.

At the end of a day of intense politicking and speculations, and after the midnight meeting at the presidency, the word from official quarters was that there was no question of giving any concessions to the PML-N if it was not prepared to back off from the lawyers’ long march. In other words: a complete deadlock.

A highly placed source in the government told Dawn that major political decisions may have been taken somewhere else, but the late night meeting largely

dealt with the law and order situation.

During the meeting Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik presented his report on the situation, and how his team intended to block the lawyers from marching up to Islamabad.

As the police crackdown against lawyers continued in various parts of the country, and scores of more arrests were made in different cities, pressure continued to mount on the government in Islamabad to find a political solution to the crisis.

With clear signs of the ongoing confrontation turning more violent in the coming days, Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani separately met both Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari. This was also his second meeting with the PM in three days, mainly aimed at preventing the current situation spiralling out of control.

Within no time after these meetings, a flurry of activities started in official quarters. As very little information could filter out of the presidency and the Prime Minister’s house, rumours and speculations became the order of the day.

There was talk of a near agreement on a PM-sponsored package which envisaged the lifting of the governor’s rule in the Punjab, convening of a provincial assembly session to allow legislators to elect a new chief minister. There was also talk of a possible replacement of Governor Salman Taseer, whom the opposition PML-N regards as the main irritant, and restart of the discussion on the fate of deposed judges, including chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

But by late evening, all hopes of a breakthrough fell apart as, according to a high-level government source, the message from the PML-N was that it was not prepared to give any concessions unless the government agreed to restore the deposed chief justice.

Sources said that this was enough to annoy President Zardari, who stuck to his earlier decision of using strong-arm tactics to deal with the lawyers and opposition members.

Sources said that the prime minister had lost hope of a breakthrough, at least for the time being, when President Zardari declared that concessions could not be given to the PML-N unless it agreed to disassociate itself from the Long March -- a condition that was not acceptable to Nawaz Sharif and other opposition members.

Coinciding with these developments was a statement by Punjab Governor Salman Taseer that neither governor’s rule will be lifted nor would any concession be given to the PML-N.

Meanwhile, there were reports that the government was also considering imposition of restrictions on media by promulgating an ordinance through the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra). Blocking of transmissions of three private TV channels in various areas of the country was a clear indication that the government wants to impose restrictions on media and there will be no immediate resolution of the political crisis.

However, a Pemra spokesman said: “The government has not issued any instruction to any cable operators to remove any television (channel) from the cable network.”
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